This invention relates to .alpha.-galactosidase A and treatment for .alpha.-galactosidase A deficiency.
Fabry disease is an X-linked inherited lysosomal storage disease characterized by symptoms such as severe renal impairment, angiokeratomas, and cardiovascular abnormalities, including ventricular enlargement and mitral valve insufficiency. The disease also affects the peripheral nervous system, causing episodes of agonizing, burning pain in the extremities. Fabry disease is caused by a deficiency in the enzyme .alpha.-galactosidase A (.alpha.-gal A), which results in a blockage of the catabolism of neutral glycosphingolipids, and accumulation of the enzyme's substrate, ceramide trihexoside, within cells and in the bloodstream.
Due to the X-linked inheritance pattern of the disease, essentially all Fabry disease patients are male. Although a few severely affected female heterozygotes have been observed, female heterozygotes are generally either asymptomatic or have relatively mild symptoms largely limited to a characteristic opacity of the cornea. An atypical variant of Fabry disease, exhibiting low residual .alpha.-gal A activity and either very mild symptoms or apparently no other symptoms characteristic of Fabry disease, correlates with left ventricular hypertrophy and cardiac disease (Nakano et al., New Engl. J. Med. 333:288-293, 1995). It has been speculated that reduction in .alpha.-gal A may be the cause of such cardiac abnormalities.
The cDNA and gene encoding human .alpha.-gal A have been isolated and sequenced (Bishop et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 83:4859, 1986; Kornreich et al., Nuc. Acids Res. 17:3301, 1988; Oeltjen et al., Mammalian Genome 6:335-338, 1995). Human .alpha.-gal A is expressed as a 429-amino acid polypeptide, of which the N-terminal 31 amino acids constitute a signal peptide. The human enzyme has been expressed in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells (Desnick, U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,804; Ioannou et al., J. Cell Biol. 119:1137, 1992); insect cells (Calhoun et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,179,023); and COS cells (Tsuji et al., Eur. J. Biochem. 165:275, 1987). Pilot trials of .alpha.-gal A replacement therapies have been reported, using protein derived from human tissues (Mapes et al., Science 169:987 1970; Brady et al., N. Engl. J. Med. 289:9, 1973; Desnick et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 76:5326, 1979), but there is currently no effective treatment for Fabry disease.